Catherine

Wild

Wild by Cheryl Strayed is a compelling novel that follows the true story of Cheryl’s life.  She is writing about herself trying to tell her story to anyone willing to listen, especially those struggling with the decisions they made or through tragedy in their life.  Her message is that it does not matter what mistakes you have made as long as they can be learned from and have an overall positive outcome.  She brings this up in the moment she reflects on her life knowing that being on the trail is where she needs to be and feels that even though so much bad has happened in her life it got her to this magnificent place.

            I myself go on trips similar every summer and I can relate to both the mental and the physical impact the hardship, wilderness, and solitary can have.  Even those who cannot easily relate to the change she goes through, most have experienced something she went through growing up.  She was raised by a singe mother, love for her siblings who grew apart, wrong choices in men, a death in the family, or involvement in drugs.  If none of that applies to one, the inner conflict she suffers on a day to day basis while on the trail.

            Out of everything that Cheryl did and went through she was able to start over.  She worked through all of the choices she made and the bad things that happened in her life such as her mother’s death and made amends.  She got over her lost marriage, felt content with a guy just being with him, started a new family, and never went back to heroine.  If someone like Strayed who had no experience and very little knowledge of what she was doing while being practically alone with very little money on her endeavor can make her own happy ending, everyone has a chance.  Speaking from experience what Strayed did was less about skill and physical strength and more about mental strength.  It was that kind of mental strength development that gave her the ability to change her life around.  She knew what she had to do in her gut and she did it.

            This is a strong piece of rhetoric that shows that it is never to late to change our life around and take control.  She stresses that every part of our life is crucial and when we have a gut feeling we have to do what we need to even if the moment to do so is not there we must create it ourselves.  I hope many people, especially young adults, get the chance to read this book in order to be able to empower themselves to do what they need to in order to better themselves and their lives.